- Charlene:
It was late into the rainy evening, Luna was siting on the window sill looking down at the streets from the corner of her eye. She had only been home for two hours, yet she left before the crack of dawn. She had come back from a job and spent the entire day at the guildhall. Either taking down notes of who's on what job, reading updates from the Magic council, or handling the paperwork of the guild, whether it be restocking food and other supplies or formalities of new recruits. She did take a nap at the golden castle, but that did not feel much refreshing. When she got home, she got out of her qipao and threw on a sweater. Even factoring the travel was short thanks to the teleportation, the travel time was still unpleasantly long. Zina had the kitchen cleaned, but she was spending the night at a friend two floors down.
The room was dimly lit and still, only sound was Neptuna in her smaller form swimming around in the bath tub and splashing about. Luna's chin was buried in her knees. She wanted to sleep but she had too much anxiety and a strong headache in her way. On her desk, one of the books flipped itself open and through the pages to the middle, all pages were blank. Luna looked over to see it was the 'Tome of Integration', that seemed to react again.
The book broke Luna free of a curse that affected her paternal lineage. Luna walked up and looked at the blank page, as the words appeared. "You've grown quite strong, haven't you?" Luna didn't answer, she was not sure of her own strength. She had been commended for her strength by some, but she herself didn't believe she could live up to the words, being caught in her own shadow. The book responded to the silence. "I see. I think it's about time, I need to cash in that favor you promised." Luna nodded, recalling the promise she made years ago. She promised to help the wizard inside break free, but she couldn't figure out the seal used. It seemed resistant to Integrated Mind, and had very little magical presence. Various experts were unable to determine the source of the seal. "Now? I can't, I've done my research and tried every method, even obliterate the book. It regenerates, no way to remove you from it." Then the book wrote bellow the last line. "There is a way, and we can do this. You've amassed enough strength, I can break the seal now. We are ready to proceed. Touch the book." Luna was nervous, but the last three words kept repeating. She knew she owed the wizard trapped inside the book a debt, she'd be a waitress or maid still afraid to return to River village if not for Integration Magic.
Luna placed her hand on the book, which lit up in a golden light. Luna felt as if something was drained from her, something taken but she felt like she was missing nothing, as if something extra was removed. In the moment, timed seemed to hold still as it seemed as though Integrated Mind was forced into overdrive.
Luna saw a vision of what appeared to be a trial, where there were three judges before a young woman with long blond hair and vicious purple eyes dressed scantily while chained to a pole in the middle of a nullification magic circle. The lead judge made his ruling "Charlene Silver the charges of mass murder, human experimentation resulting in the following 'absorbing energy, time, and strength', and theft over 20 grand Jewels, you are hereby found guilty. " The girl laughed back at the judges, struggling to get out of her chains. "Someone had to be willing to go that far! Integration magic can go beyond what you expect! I will perfect it!"
Luna had snapped back to reality as the book exploded, sending her flying across the room, crashing her against the wall. Luna groggily raised her head as she saw the girl from the vision, standing before her. Luna was now aware of what she had done. "Oh dear Shirain... You are, a " The girl stretched out before she walked over and kicked Luna into the collarbone before twisting her foot. "Ye, I'm a dark wizard, get over it." Luna felt like a fool, she trusted the girl too much, she couldn't sense any emotions from the book before, but a curious thing was the girl seemed to lack life force but exuded a lot of magical energy. She knew that she had no other choice, but to take the ancient wizard down. "You killed and mutilated countless vicitims..." Luna wheezed out as she aimed her palm towards the dark wizard's face, but only a few sparks of white energy gathered before nothing.
The dark wizard couldn't help but laugh at Luna's failed effort. She dug her heel in further as she leaned in, inspecting Luna closely. "Damn, I was hoping for a bit more excitement. You only looked into the past with the mind? Shame, I spent my time analyzing your body, every inch and cell of it. Gotta admit, I thought you stuffed your-" Luna let out a belch as her throat was being pressed against, anything she said was inaudible. "Oh, by the way, I took back the magic I gave you, restoring my power plus interest... What you have now is the embers left behind." She took her foot off of Luna's throat, Luna coughed, she realized then why she such a vivid memory, the transition boosted integrated mind to it's peak. She reached within her hoodie pocket to pull out her whip, but the dark wizard was one step ahead. She used a Minor Aura Pulse to shoot the rod out of her hand, causing it to roll underneath her bed. "I was gonna spare you, but you seem to hate mercy you ungrateful brat, look at what I've done, you got your revenge on your brother, you're master of a guild, and you got a kickass supply of wealth."
Luna bit her lip as she rolled on her side but then tried to kick her enemy in the leg, but she was counted when Charlene grabbed her by the leg and tossed Luna out of the window, before she jumped out of the window after her. While they fell, Charlene made a dive for Luna was she folded in her thumbs, extending out two Spirit Swords. "You're useless mid-air! I know about every battle you fought." She tried to decapitate Luna, however Luna had one last trick as she was still wearing the Lighting Dragon Eye, she charged a ball of lightning in her hand before a lightning bolt shot at the dark wizard. Charlene counted with her blades, breaking it in the process. In the short amount of time Luna had, she grabbed the other wizard by the neck and with all her night threw her bellow her. There was only a few more seconds before hitting the ground, she managed to catch the ledge of a building and watch as the dark wizard hit the ground, face first.
Luna sighed relief as she climbed up to the ledge. However she didn't sense anything erratic in regards to life force, besides the panic of civilians. Luna looked down and sensed a decline in the magic energy as she saw in a crater in the ground was Charlene, who was covered in wounds and seemed to have broken both arms, nose, and one leg. Luna noticed that coming out of the body like steam was white energy. Luna saw the body twitch, and her hands clenched as she absorbed energy from the ground. Luna recognized what she was doing, integration. Charlene's skin and hair took on a rocky texture, as they turned black and grey respectively.She stood up and looked at Luna, now annoyed as she her hand into the earth, and a spear extended before she threw it at Luna. Luna doged by jumping into a tree. "Gotta admit, you put up a good fight, but you can't win. True, you unlocked your heritage, but when it came down to it, it was my magic that saved your pretty little ass, not yours."
Luna tried tossing down seeds to either summon or form walls, but each time was foiled. Each summon was cut off as the root couldn't turn into the platform, or the seed was destroyed before it hit the bottom. "Sorry, no summons to fight for you."
However, Luna started to feel hopeless, it was a losing battle. She was outmatched, outclassed, and outwitted. She couldn't win. She couldn't go for help, there was no time. Luna tried to jump out of the tree and kick the dark wizard, but that was a fruitless effort as Charlene used a Rock (Spirit) Shield. Luna jumped off of the shield, sliding her feet before regaining her balance and she was then faced face to face with the cold violet eyes. However, she had a theory but unable to prove it. She then noticed how Charlene dropped the integrated state, and suffer no repercussions that Luna had. "I think I figured you out, you are no longer human, are you?" She decided she had to pray on the ego of the wicked wizard in order to get confirmation. Luckily she was right, and the woman spoke up. "How intuitive, you figured that out, what gave me away? The fact I didn't bleed?" Luna nodded, that was one of her observations. "That, the fact that you give off immense magic energy but no life force of a human, and lastly, your reaction, or rather lack of reaction to Integration's expiration. You don't feel effected by the energy shift, because your form is just a faux body forged by your magic."
Luna's thoughts were wandering, but she was still in a hopeless situation. However Charlene saw through the basic bluff. She then kicked up towards Luna, releasing a wave of aura energy from under her foot towards Luna. Luna jumped out of the way but she didn't realize she jumped right into a wall, hitting her left shoulder. The rain started to get heavier as she fell to the ground. Before Luna could get up, Charlene clenched her fist, white energy gathered before she thrust her first, Luna saw what was coming. "Aura Cannon!" The blast of the white energy hit Luna, forcing her into the wall, Luna's cry of pain was loud. Luna rolled over, she could feel that her shoulder was dislocated. She spat out a bit of blood. Leaning her back against the wall as a crutch, she slowly got up, holding her left her as her body glowed in a soft pink light while she tried to heal herself.
"C'mon, get the bad lady!"
Luna's gaze turned to see that a young boy was watching the fray nearby. Luna's heart starting racing, Charlene saw Luna get nervous and decided to have a bit of fun as she turned a hand to face the boy, before casting a Minor Aura Pulse at the boy. Luna pushed her body to it's limit as she got in the way, shielding the boy with her body as she took the shot in the abdomen. She coughed out blood, her legs shaking, but she still stood to face the dark wizard. Charlene laughed, she was glad to see that Luna was not down. "Still got some strength in you? You really enjoy taking a lot of hits. Thanks for making this fun!" She folded in her thumb before charging at Luna with yet another Spirit Sword. Time seemed to slow down as Luna was scared this was her death scene.
"So, this is it, this is how I go out, protecting a child. She's right, Integration was how I solved a lot of jams, wait a minute, how! It was never the magic, it was the wielder. Integration, Summoning magic, my weapons, all just tools. She took back a sharp tool... Wait, the embers I have left, and Integration is transferable... Shirain give me strength."
Luna was an arm down, a few bruised ribs, and she felt drained of all energy she had left in the day, she knew that her plan was risky even without the present conditions. Luna did nothing as the blade pierced her abdomen and came out through the other side of her body. The sound of her cries overcame the rain. Luna then grabbed the arm of Charlene, calling on the embers of Integration she had left. "F... ful, inte-gra-tion..."
Using what she had left, Luna knew what she was doing. Charlene felt Integration magic being transferred, she tried to fight it, but she was struggling. "You made three mistakes Charlene." Charlene looked into Luna's eyes as she fell onto her knees, trying to maintain her form as she seemed to start to loose color, fading to white. "First off, you don't understand my motivations. I am not fueled by greed. Whatever I obtained was to help everyone around me, I don't care about being Guild Master, having money, or any of that." Luna felt the Integration magic restored into her body, and the instability of the magic energy, realizing that she was using Integration magic as a stabilizer. "Second mistake, you tried to play me like a chump, which gave me a chance to grow stronger. I am not defined by my tools, but how I used them."
Luna pulled out the arm before she kicked Charlene aside. Charlene was barely able to move as she looked up to Luna. "The... the third?" Luna started to heal her wounds with Nature's Mercy while she quickly dropped two droplets of magic energy from the palm of her hand onto the ground, causing two Soul Tear plants to sprout. She ate and swallowed both as the wounds on her body healed, her shoulder gently reset itself into place. "The third, you showed me your fatal flaw. You confirmed your body was made of pure magic energy, Integration magic absorbs and regulates energy. Your body is dissipating, you discarded your flesh so you could return quicker, hoping you could sustain on pure Integration magic. I want to save you, but you're already dead, and I can't let you keep Integration Magic as you would cause harm with it."
Luna watched as the dark wizard's body turned into a white energy, and started to break apart. "Lunaris... This is checkmate. Those years... I was looking for a new host. My accomplice is still out there... They will come, this game... is over. Can you win... the next." The body broke apart into white energy that faded away. Luna dropped to her hands and knees, exhausted. "Damn it. I just can't catch a break, but as long as I'm needed, I can live with that... Who's next though?"
